This invention relates to an air heater and blower assembly for discharging air at a generally uniform velocity along the length of an elongated slot, the assembly being installed in a wall of a building, or as a free-standing self-contained unit. The invention may be used to dry human beings or animals such as horses, for example, but is not limited thereto.
It is well known to use portable air heaters and blowers to discharge air at a relatively high velocity for drying. For example, portable hair dryers are of this type.
It is also known, from U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,621, to Duerre, to use a heater in a bathroom having elongated slots for drying the human body and hair.
It is also known to use a flexible hose in combination with an air heater and blower as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,449,838 to Chancellor, Jr. Another type of body drying apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,199 to Goldstein. Here, the whole body of a person may be dried by the passage of hot air; a deflector is arranged to deflect a stream of hot air from an outlet, the deflector being oscillated so as to cause the stream of air to sweep upward and downward over the body.
Other U.S. patents relate to an after-shower body dryer, as shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,128,161 to Hudon, showing a plurality of heated air outlets with air being heated by an element and a blower being arranged in a conduit to provide the air supply. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,977,455 to Murphy, a body dryer is shown having an electrical heating element, switches arranged together with other structure for use in blowing heated air across a human body. A perforated plate is used to distribute the air across a central portion of the plate.
In another type of device, heated air is used in combination with a blower to inflate generally flexible, flaccid bag members so as to rub against the body of a person, the bag being generally absorbent and porous. Here, contact of a human body with the bag while the bag is inflated with heated air, causes drying by physical contact of the bag member with the body together with air flow carrying moisture away from the bag member. Some convection moisture removal will be caused by the generally low air flow speed through the bag member, however this is not the primary drying mode.